Lexical Semantics

Question 1

Synonyms

Answer 1

two or more words or other expressions that make the same or similar contribution to the sense of a sentence (ex. Big-large, vacation-holiday,purchase-buy)

Question 2

Antonym

Answer 2

two or more words with opposite meanings (ex. Dark-light, up-down)

Question 3

Hypernym

Answer 3

a word that has a more general meaning than another word (bird is a hypernym to crow)

Question 4

Hyponym

Answer 4

a word with a more specific meaning (collie is a hyponym to a dog)

Question 5

Polysemy

Answer 5

a word that has two or m ore distinct meanings (bright means: intelligent and shining)

Question 6

Homonym

Answer 6

words or lexems that share that same form in spelling and/or pronunciation but have different forms and do not relate (ex. Light can mean not heavy or illumination, right or write)

Question 7

Lexical ambiguity

Answer 7

when a single word two or more meanings (polysemy and homonym)
- Because liz needed a place to keep her guinea pig so she bought a pen
- Liz bought daughter a new pen but it keeps spilling ink

Question 8

Connotations

Answer 8

the set of associations a words use can evoke (ex. Exam: questions, studying, stress)

Question 9

Reference and Denotations

Answer 9

the entities in the word it refers to (ex. Winter: dec 21 - march 21, exam: midterm or final)
- The set of words it referents is also known as its denotation
- Some words have no denotation (ex. unicorn)
- Some words have the same denotation but don’t mean the same things (The prime minister of Canada, the leader of the liberal party)
- Linguistic expression with highly abstract meanings make it difficult to reference anything (because, really)

Question 10

Sense

Answer 10

the concept a word evokes, what determines its possible referents and a words intention

Question 11

Concept

Answer 11

the abstract mental representation and categories by which we organize the phenomena and the experiences we have
the sense of a word consists of, or at least is closely associated with a corresponding concept
Vague rather than clearcut (bird, rich, father-in-law)
Fuzzy concepts can overlap forming a bridge between two concepts (tomato blurs the line between fruit and veg)
People who speak different languages may conceptualize things differently

Question 12

morphemes

Answer 12

parts of words (ex. Tastic, -ed, un-), have form and meaning

Question 13

Phrases

Answer 13

(ex. Cool as a cucumber, in that, throw shade) things that you have to learn and are stored in one’s mental lexicon to be understood, have form and meaning

Question 14

Sentences

Question 15

Utterances

Answer 15

linguistic expressions used in an actual discourse in actual communication (ex. What time is it? yes) this is specifically discourse, have from and meaning

Question 16

Lexemes

Answer 16

vocab in a speakers mental lexicon, all have form and meaning TALK (ex talks, talking talked)

Question 17

Paraphrase

Answer 17

two sentences that have the same meaning (if they are true under the same conditions)
- Paul bought a car from sue
- Sue sold a car to Paul

Question 18

Entailment

Answer 18

sentence P entails another sentence Q if the truth of P guarantees the truth of Q
- That cat killed a mouse (P)
- The mouse is dead (Q)

Question 19

An asymmetrical relation

Answer 19

• type of entailments
• When the reverse of two statements do not hold true
  a. I bought a writing implement.
  does NOT entail:
  b. I bought a fountain pen

Question 20

Contradiction/paradox:

Answer 20

a sentence P is a contradiction of sentence Q if both cannot be true at the same time or under the same conditions
- Charles lives in edm
- Charles does not live in edm

Charles has recovered from cancer
Charles has never been sick

Can be connected by and: # charles lives in edmonton and has never set food in this city
“#” semantically anonymous, cant be true

The propositional approach can be used to characterize the meaning of lexemes

Question 21

Compositionally

Answer 21

The meaning of a complex expression is a regular function of the meaning of its parts
- Charles is a wealthy man

Not all combinations of words are compositional

Question 22

Structural ambiguity of Compositionality

Answer 22

Susi is suspicious of wealthy men and women

Meaning A: Susi is sus of wealthy men and wealthy women
Structure A:Susi is suspicious of [wealthy (men and women)]
Meaning B: Susi is suspicious of wealthy men, and of all women
Structure B: Susi is suspicious of [(wealthy men) and women]

When a sentence can be interpreted in multiple ways due to different syntactic structures, which conflicts with the principle of compositionality, which states that a phrase’s meaning is determined by its structure and its parts’ meanings.

Question 23

Pronoun interpretation of Compositionality

Answer 23

a) John thinks that…everyone admires his parents
- Everyone admires johns parents
- Everyone admires his own parents

b) His parents are admired by everyone
- Everyone admires John’s parents
- Cannot mean: everyone admires his own parents

Question 24

Constructional meaning

Answer 24

• Expressions or structural patterns which carry meaning beyond the meaning of their component parts
• play a role in the interpretation of sentences

Question 25

Definition of Metaphor

Answer 25

concepts can be linked by metaphor (one concept can be understood in terms of another. We understand abstract concepts in terms of more concrete concepts) - Your wasting my time - How do you spend your time - I invested a lot of time in that project

Question 26

Where do metaphors originate

Answer 26

Is based on perceived resemblance. Perception is based in shared human experience and/or in culture Many everyday words originate from metaphors therefore metaphors helps create new words Different languages have different metaphors

Question 27

Sentence and proposition

Answer 27

sentence-meaning can be characterized in terms of proposition (something that is true or false) and the logical relationships among propositions - Susi kissed her cat ten times - The present king of france is bald (sentence meaning) We know what the world would need to look like for the proposition to be true

Question 28

idiom

Answer 28

- John finally spilled the beans yesterday - a phrase or expression where the meaning is different from the literal meaning of the words themselves - not compositional, meaning its meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of its individual words. Instead, the entire phrase has a figurative meaning that is learned

Question 29

Sentence interpretation

Answer 29

the interpretation of sentences containing deictic element depend on the setting in which they are uttered

Question 30

Discourse

Answer 30

the proceeding and following of sentences the interpretation of sentence containing pronouns-depends on the discourse ex. A little girl went for a walk in the park. While there, she saw a rabbit. Since it was injured, she took it home.

Question 31

Implecatures

Answer 31

inferences which are not logical entailments but arise from contextually available assumptions - Do you know what time it is? Yes - How many cats do you have? I have three. In fact, I have four (this person has four cats in total however her saying she has three wasn't wrong, because she does) saying three is the implicature of only three, you can cancel this implicature by saying actually 4 Things that are implied in communication

Question 32

Inonation

Answer 32

the rise and fall of someones voice in speaking, emphasis a specific word in a sentence George is here already. (falling intonation) George is here already? (rising intonation)

Question 33

What are non linguistic factors of sentence meaning

Answer 33

1. Gesture and facial expression interacts closely with language though it is nonlinguistic This tastes interesting I'm very sorry that I spread rumors about you. I wont do it again 2. World knowledge a. The judge denied the prisoner's request because she was dangerous. world knowledge: being dangerous is more typical for prisoners than for judges b. The judge denied the prisoner's request because she was cautious. world knowledge: being cautious is more typical for judges than for prisoners

Question 34

Types of constructional meaning

Answer 34

1. Caused motion construction vs no caused motion - Boris sneezed the handkerchief right across the room vs. Boris CAUSED the handkerchief TO GO across the room by sneezing (no verb causing motion in the second) 2. construction-based meaning - aka the "What's X doing" construction - involves a state, not an action, although literal meaning of doing is an action ex. Diner: Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup? Waiter: Madam, I believe that's the backstroke.